Metros, K.C. open home-and-home series

after scoring two all of last season -- to pull the MetroStars all the way back. He hit for his first just before the halftime break, John Wolyniec slipping a square pass inside the box for the Colombian to drive past Bo Oshoniyi (43).

Then on the hour, Galvan Rey hit again, with Wolyniec again the provider. He ran down a long ball from the center circle from Youri Djokaeff -- who made his MLS debut -- and after holding off a defender in the penalty area laid it back for the oncoming Galvan Rey, who made no mistake with his low finish.

LAST MEETING

The Wizards claimed victory on May 25 at Arrowhead Stadium, winning by the lone goal in the match. It came on 48 minutes through a quick attack off a turnover just inside the MetroStars half. Chris Klein drew the MetroStars defense to him, then fed Sasha Victorine who quickly squared for Davy Arnaud to the right as Scott Sealy played a wonderful dummy. Arnaud's left-footed shot snuck between MetroStars goalkeeper Zach Wells legs and into the back of the net.

The Wizards had nearly taken the lead in the 19th minute when defender Jimmy Conrad headed a corner goalward that seemed certain to hit home, but Amado Guevara made an acrobatic diving header on the line to preserve the scoreless tie at that point.

A year ago, the MetroStars won the first two meetings before the Wizards came back for a victory in the third. The Metros won 1-0 at home on May 30 (Wolyniec 73), then 2-1 at Arrowhead on July 28 (Klein 37 - Glen 23, Guevara 66), but the Wizards captured a 1-0 victory at home on Sept. 4 (Wolff 43)

The MetroStars had won three consecutive meetings between the teams before Kansas City's triumph on Sept. 4 of last year. The teams had split their season series the three previous seasons before last year.

The MetroStars return to action after a weekend off from league wars, their last match a wild and somewhat miraculous 3-3 draw with Chivas USA at Giants Stadium on Aug. 21. The MetroStars are still currently out of the playoff picture with 33 points from 24 matches, five points behind fourth-place D.C. United with eight matches still left to play, though they are just eight points out of second place in the tight Eastern Conference.

The MetroStars extended their home unbeaten streak to nine games thanks to an Amado Guevara hat trick while still keeping Chivas USA winless away from home in their inaugural season, but it was far from a foregone conclusion.

Guevara scored his first from the penalty spot after just five minutes when Eddie Gaven was tripped up in the area, but Chivas got three goals - all from new acquisitions - to take a dominant lead into the halftime break.

Mexican international Juan Francisco Palencia scored twice within five minutes in MLS debut to send Chivas in front. First, he tapped home a Douglas Sequeira flick header from a corner from close range (17), then he latched onto a mis-hit clearance and hammered home a first-time blast from outside the area.

Then Juan Pablo Garcia, another Mexican international, put Chivas two to the good with a wonderful goal, collecting a return pass from Arturo Torres and deftly chipping Tony Meola from the heart of the penalty area (39).But the MetroStars were handed a lifeline midway through the second half when Gaven was again hacked down in the area, and Guevara again converted from the spot, the first time in MetroStars history the club had scored two penalties in one game.

Yet when it seemed it wouldn't be enough, the Metros won a freekick at the top of the restraining arc. Youri Djorkaeff slid a pass to the left to Guevara, and he hit a sublime curling strike inside the far post to share the points.

"It takes a lot of work to come back from two goals. I thought we had some good chances. At the end you are looking for a miracle and we got one," said MetroStars coach Bob Bradley.

Bradley made three changes to the team that came back to defeat the Columbus Crew 2-1 a week earlier at home. Tim Ward and Ryan Suarez came into the makeshift back four for Chris Leitch and Seth Stammler, while Amado Guevara returned from suspension in place of the injured Ante Razov as Bradley readjusted his attack.

"It's good to see the them still fighting, that is always a positive. I have seen this with this group, but nonetheless, we lost our discipline for a period in the first half and that is something that cannot happen," Bradley said. "That ultimately cost us those two points. I felt like there were enough chances for us to get three points."

TEAM NEWS

The goal for the Metros coming into the game was a win - all three games of the Metros homestand were considered must-wins by Bradley - but trailing 3-1 at the half, an unlikely draw all of a sudden became quite appealing.

"At the end it could be zero points," said Djorkaeff, who wore the captain's armband for a second consecutive game because of superstition, according to Bradley. "But at the end we put our hearts into it and we came out of it with one good point."

"I tried to move away and nobody could tell that I was there, so I called to Youri to give it to me," Guevara said. "It was a beautiful ball (from Youri) and I put it where I wanted to put it."

The MetroStars have lost midfielder Danilo da Silva for the next 3-5 weeks after he underwent surgery to repair a tear in the meniscus of his right knee. Da Silva has played five matches since his signing earlier this season, all as a substitute, playing a total of 62 minutes.

KANSAS CITY WIZARDS

The Kansas City Wizards saw their four-game winning streak come to an end, the Columbus Crew making the only goal stand up in a 1-0 victory on Aug. 26 at Arrowhead Stadium. The Wizards are now tied for second place in the Eastern Conference with D.C. United with 41 points from 25 matches, still four points behind the New England Revolution but just two ahead of fourth-place Chicago Fire.

The Crew put an end to the four-game winning streak of the Wizards thanks to a goal from another player who came back to haunt his former club.

Chris Henderson scored the only goal of the game in the 34th minute for the Crew, the one-time Wizards winger finishing off a good move that prised open the K.C. defense, collecting Kyle Martino's chip and slotting home past Bo Oshoniyi inside the far post.

The Wizards were left with 10 men late in the match as Diego Gutierrez was sent off for a second bookable offense.

"I could rant and rave about a lot of things. I could rant and rave about the man in the middle. I could rant and rave about the unsportsmanlike behavior of (Glen) for most of the game. I could certainly rant and rave about the schedule which forced us to play Wednesday night and again on Friday and on a rainy, knee deep field," said Gansler. "There's all sorts of physiological reasons, but the bottom line is we didn't play well enough early enough in order to go and get that first goal."

TEAM NEWS

After all the good feeling generated from a perfect road trip followed by a home victory - the first of a stretch of six home games in an eight-game span - it seemed all undone by the midweek loss to the Minnesota Thunder in the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal and then the loss to the Crew.

"This is a difficult game to play for 90-plus minutes when you have a weekend in between. For sure it's a hell of a thing to do when you've got 48 hours. We also need to understand, and I think they do, we need to come out of the chute a little quicker, a little sharper, and get that first goal," Gansler said. "And then the ball doesn't get tired and you're in charge. When you're tired, you cut corners ... Then you hope it's going to get there and you don't have to set the guy up. That's human nature. For sure that happened to us today.

A paltry one shot on goal for each half pointed to offensive failings all game. More shots needed to test Crew 'keeper Jonny Walker and that final penetrating pass needed to be more accurate.

"Yeah, I don't think the final ball was there for us tonight," Arnaud said. "It got tougher as the game went on because they were dropping a little deeper. We had to start putting more long stuff into the box. [Columbus] does well with that with their big guys in the box."

The Wizards will now have to recover without Josh Wolff, Kerry Zavagnin and Jimmy Conrad, who have been called into Bruce Arena's U.S. national team camp for Saturday's clash with Mexico in a World Cup qualifier. Additionally, Scott Sealy has been called in for Trinidad and Tobago's meeting with Guatemala and Diego Gutierrez's sending will force him to sit out against the MetroStars.

For Gutierrez, the red card will mean another lost chance to reclaim his starting place. A series of misfortunes have befallen the Wizards captain, who has not started a league game since the All-Star break. "It's a situation where it was a tight game. I'm not sure we got a fair shake on a lot of the calls - it almost felt like we were playing away," said the Colombian native, in his 10th season in MLS. "But that's the way the game goes."

Saturday will be the first time MetroStars goalkeeper Tony Meola will be facing his former team. "I think he's motivated, not only because he's playing us, but he's happy to be playing," Gutierrez said. "He appreciates the fact that he's in goal again, he's got a team, he's got a job, and he's got a group of guys that he can share with. That's the most important thing, that you're back to playing."

Adds Chris Klein: "That's going to be great. My first game in MLS was played against Tony Meola. I've told him this many times, he owes me a few because I had wide eyes a couple of times and he stoned me when I was a rookie," Klein said. "I'm very much looking forward to playing against Tony. I'm a good friend of his, but I respect him as a person and a player."

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